6. Cultural Snobbery or Cultural Shock?

Recently a teacher of English inaugurating a social get-together in the department of English in a college which in yester years had a great reputation in the capital city of God’s Own Country, Kerala began his speech to a gathering of students of English Literature thus : “ Out of  deep admiration for  my audience   I would like to deliver my speech in Malayalam”. This was immediately accompanied by a resounding applause from the audience!

A decade ago I was attending a world conference on languages in CIEFL, Hyderabad, now known as EFL University. During an ongoing discussion on the use of English a  middle-aged scholar opined: “The time has come for us Indians to use our kind of English!” (Obviously the gentleman was referring to the Indian variety of English with its own pronunciation and spelling which in every respect would appear to a true scholar and lover of the English language a ‘bastard variety’) This statement  too was followed  by a reverberating affirmation by a vast majority of the delegates of the conference comprising Indian scholars of English.

Now, both the institutions which I referred to above were once considered  temples of impeccable English from whose class rooms emanated the musical mixture of rhythm and intonation characteristic of Standard English.

One wonders whether the local teacher was trying to hide his incompetence in using good English with his hypocritical reference to the audience’s passion for Malayalam! I cannot really tell you whether the majority of the audience  on both the above occasions are living in a deceptive world of cultural snobbery or have become victims of a cultural shock which affirms the superiority of the English language as an indispensable world language.

Well, dear readers what do you think?